Prop Firm Drawdown Calculator

How to use the prop firm drawdown calculator

Funded and evaluation accounts usually have two loss rules: a daily loss limit and a maximum drawdown. Break either one and the account fails, even if you’re in profit overall. Enter your firm’s rules exactly as they’re written, plus your balance and any open trades, and the calculator shows how much you can still lose today and overall, which limit is closer, and how many full stop-outs at your usual risk that leaves.

There are no firm presets on purpose. Rules differ between firms and between account types at the same firm, and they change. Copy the numbers from your own rules page or dashboard.

Daily loss limit: what the inputs mean

• Limit: a percentage or a fixed amount, for example 5% or 5,000.
• % is of: some firms calculate the percentage from the starting balance, so it’s the same amount every day; others use today’s starting value, so the amount changes as the account grows or shrinks.
• Today’s starting balance or equity: the value at the firm’s daily reset. Firms define this differently (balance, equity, or the higher of the two, at a set time), so enter the figure your firm uses.
• Measured on equity or balance: if it’s measured on equity, a losing open trade counts against the limit before you close it.

Example: starting balance 100,000, daily limit 5% of the starting balance, so the limit is 5,000 a day. Today started at 101,000, so the daily floor is 96,000. With a closed balance of 99,000 and an open trade down 1,000, equity is 98,000, so you can lose 2,000 more today if the limit is measured on equity, or 3,000 if it’s measured on closed balance.

Static vs trailing drawdown

• Static: the floor is fixed below the starting balance. A 10% static drawdown on 100,000 means you fail below 90,000, however much profit you make first.
• Trailing: the floor follows your highest balance or equity up and never moves down. With a 10,000 trailing drawdown, reaching 106,000 moves the floor from 90,000 to 96,000, so giving back 10,000 of profit fails the account.
• Trailing that stops: many trailing rules stop moving once the floor reaches a level, often the starting balance. Enter that level in “Stops trailing at” and the floor won’t go above it.

A trailing drawdown on equity is the strictest version: unrealised profit raises the floor too, so a winning trade that comes back to breakeven can still cost you room.

Using it with your trade plan

Enter your usual risk per trade to see how many full stop-outs in a row the account can take before the closer limit is breached. If one stop-out would already breach it, the calculator says so. To size each trade from that risk, use the trade plan builder, which also tracks a daily risk budget across your planned trades, and log results in the trading journal. For how long a losing streak takes to recover, see the drawdown calculator.

This calculator does arithmetic on the rules and figures you enter, in your browser; your inputs are remembered on this device only. It doesn’t know your firm’s exact methods, reset times or exceptions, and it isn’t trading advice. Your firm’s own dashboard is the final word.

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